This is whether we bought our machines in retro times or back in the day. What made you choose a BBC over some other computer, especially outside education? (I guess the education side is too easy a question to answer.)

I enjoyed tinkering with that on Beeb-Em a few years ago but the emulator's sound was choppy and not so good, plus there's always a latency issue using an emulator for performing music. There's a lot of sampling possibility with envelopes and a couple of BBCs compliment my Commodores and the rest superbly.

I remember being very impressed by the operating system - even from what I could see in my friend's User Guide, it was well-organised. A world away from machines where you have to learn lots of peeks and pokes. Of course it had graphics and sound too, which you can't quite say for the UK101 I was upgrading from.

But you ask about a killer app... I'd have to say BBC Basic! (It's an application like any other, almost, the way the Beeb deals with it.)

(Edit: and, of course, the assembler which is built in to BBC Basic... beats assembly by hand.)

Last edited by BigEd on Sun Aug 05, 2018 12:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I’d say BBC Basic is definitely an ‘app’ (although I guess I am stuck in my ways and call things software or programs or applications etc. ) - take it away and the computer still works (assuming you put another language in of course)

I think also BBC Basic as the main reason - very comprehensive and a relatively easy door way to assembly. Before Elite came out I spent more time programming than anything else. Had Elite already been released that would have been another killer app for me.

BBC BASIC was a close second for me, too. I enjoyed tinkering with it back at school and readers probably remember helping me with my RIFFER program, especially where I got the joystick going: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11512

Richard Russell's BBC BASIC FOR WINDOWS is also very splendid because I like the sound that makes and it compiles to a Windows executable. But for me, a separate killer app program tipped the balance to persuade me to finally buy a real BBC.

I remember being very impressed by the operating system - even from what I could see in my friend's User Guide, it was well-organised. A world away from machines where you have to learn lots of peeks and pokes. Of course it had graphics and sound too, which you can't quite say for the UK101 I was upgrading from.

But you ask about a killer app... I'd have to say BBC Basic! (It's an application like any other, almost, the way the Beeb deals with it.)

(Edit: and, of course, the assembler which is built in to BBC Basic... beats assembly by hand.)

2nd processor elite and sideways ram enhanced exile. I was happy with my elk until I saw these. This is quite recent though. My original elk was bought purely because it was the cheapest computer in the shop at the time.

For me it was basic and the operating system. I was relocating the basic for my Atom-in-PC card and I needed some references. Afaik there was no emulator back in 1998 so I borrowed a real BBC and later I could keep it.

Although I did not own any Acorn computers until well after the 1980s, at school, in terms of software, BBC BASIC was the primary interest for me. At home we had a ZX Spectrum and I loved programming in BASIC on it. But BBC BASIC was up another level. Especially the structured programming elements (procedures etc).